THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The back-to-back Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Tournament Champion California Lutheran University women's water polo starts 2022 as the No. 2 ranked team according to Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA).

The Regals return a ton of experience, have their eyes fixed on another SCIAC crown and the highly anticipated 2022 USA Water Polo Division III College Water Polo National Championship tournament. The senior class is led by Jessica Diaz, Kemi Dijkstra, Kaitlin Gardhouse, Rachel Ray, Lexi Rond and Megan Sawyer as they look for a third straight SCIAC tournament championship. The make-up of the team continues with eight juniors, four sophomores and four freshmen. 

Roster | Schedule

The Regals start the season on the road and take on Division II Concordia Irvine on Feb. 11 and 1:30 p.m. Read what Head Coach Cody Pletcher had to say about the upcoming season. 

Your team had a smaller season last year, still won a SCIAC championship, and went to the Division I tournament. How has that helped you going into the new season?
​​​Any time you have success you try and build upon that success. That is what we have going for us this year is past success and a great core group coming back that has experienced that success. A lot of SCIAC teams did not get the opportunity to play last Spring, but we ​​​did, and we took full advantage of that as seen with our success. I believe that will roll over into this new season. 

What can you tell us about the returning class, which Regals should we be looking out for?
​The returning class of Regals this season has a lot of experience and a high​ water polo IQ. Two main driving forces behind our defense will be two-meter defender Kaitlin Gardhouse and goalie Izzy De Souza. Kaitlin and Izzy will be a key reason why it will be so hard to score on the CLU defense. On the other side of the ball, Jessica Diaz and Kemi Dijkstra will be key factors to the success of our offense. Jessica's ability to shoot the ball from the outside and Kemi's tenacity for driving will be hard to stop amongst the other weapons we have on offense. 

Then you have the incoming class, who can make noise in the pool?
​We will have the best goalie core in all ​of SCIAC. There is a Junior College All-American goalie transfer, Camryn O'Neal, that will help our offense gain shooting experience against another top-notch goalie. Furthermore, incoming freshman Vianne Will is another goalie that will challenge that position to be the best it can be within conference. Izzy is our starting goalie, but there will be a lot of brick walls behind her which is only going to make our team better in the end. 

What can you tell us about your schedule, what games are you looking forward to? 
​We have a great schedule planned with a good balance of games. Probably the game I am looking forward to most is our conference match-up with Pomona-Pitzer at home on March 30th. We did not get to play Pomona-Pitzer last year in the shortened season, and we only get to play them once in conference play. I know our whole team and coaching staff will be fired up for that game. We are also looking forward to our Harvard trip as our overnight trips are a good way for the team to get closer together, both in the water and off deck. 

What are your thoughts about the season? What can we expect from the team?
​Our goal is to win another SCIAC championship. The girls know what to expect this season with having a target on our back winning SCIAC the past two seasons, but I believe that is making us hungrier to show the water polo world that Cal Lutheran is no fluke and that we are trying to create a winning culture for years to come. There will be speed bumps along the way, and we will not be the deepest team off the bench, but we all have our eyes set on the ending target and that is all that matters; being able to jump into a pool together at the end of April as SCIAC champs.  

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Release by Ryan Jorgenson, Sports Information Director